[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 146 (Thursday, September 19, 2024)]
[House]
[Pages H5505-H5507]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
ENHANCED PRESIDENTIAL SECURITY ACT OF 2024
Mr. JORDAN. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the
bill (H.R. 9106) to direct the Director of the United States Secret
Service to apply the same standards for determining the number of
agents required to protect Presidents, Vice Presidents, and major
Presidential and Vice-Presidential candidates, and for other purposes,
as amended.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 9106
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Enhanced Presidential
Security Act of 2024''.
SEC. 2. UNIFORM STANDARDS FOR SECRET SERVICE PROTECTION OF
PRESIDENTS, VICE PRESIDENTS, AND MAJOR
PRESIDENTIAL AND VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES.
The Director of the United States Secret Service shall
apply the same standards for determining the number of agents
required to protect Presidents, Vice Presidents, and major
Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates.
SEC. 3. REPORT.
Not later than 180 days after the date of enactment of this
Act, the Director of the United States Secret Service shall
conduct a comprehensive review of the provision of protection
by the Secret Service for Presidents, Vice Presidents, former
Presidents, and major Presidential and Vice Presidential
candidates, and submit to the Committee on the Judiciary of
the House of Representatives and the Committee on the
Judiciary of the Senate a report that includes the findings
from such review, along with any recommendations for
improving the provision of protection.
SEC. 4. DEFINITION.
In this Act, the term ``major Presidential and Vice
Presidential candidates'' has the meaning given such term in
section 3056 of title 18, United States Code, and includes
any other Presidential or Vice Presidential candidate for
whom the President has otherwise authorized the Secret
Service to protect.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Moran). Pursuant to the rule, the
gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Jordan) and the gentleman from New York (Mr.
Nadler) each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Ohio.
General Leave
Mr. JORDAN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may
have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and
include extraneous material on H.R. 9106.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Ohio?
There was no objection.
Mr. JORDAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the
gentleman from New York (Mr. Lawler), my friend, who is the sponsor of
this critical legislation.
Mr. LAWLER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman for yielding.
In America, elections are determined at the ballot box, not by an
assassin's bullet.
In recent months, we have seen two such attempts on the life of
former President Donald Trump: first in Pennsylvania, and most recently
in Florida.
That these incidents were allowed to occur is a stain on our country.
We have endured through assassinations of political leaders, including
Presidents. It is destructive to our country. It is destructive to our
democracy, our constitutional Republic, and it undermines the
confidence that Americans have in their government and in the electoral
process.
But for a millimeter's difference, Donald Trump would be dead. But
for a millimeter's difference, an assassin would have upended our
election. Regardless of how every American feels, regardless of how
every American intends to vote, it is the right of the American people
to determine the outcome of this election.
The idea that our election could be decided by an assassin's bullet
should shake the conscience of our Nation, and it requires swift action
by the Federal Government. It requires Congress to ensure that the
Secret Service provides the same level of protection as it does to the
President of the United States to the leading candidates for President.
In this case, they are former President Trump and Vice President
Harris.
Either one of them is going to be President come January 20, 2025,
and the American people should get to make that choice.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from New York (Mr. Torres) for
assisting in immediately moving to introduce this legislation in the
aftermath of the first assassination attempt on Donald Trump.
It is shocking that it took a second assassination attempt for Donald
Trump to get the same level of protective detail from the Secret
Service as the President of the United States. It shouldn't have come
to that, which is all the more reason why this bill is necessary. It
will ensure that this never happens again and that the Secret Service
conduct an immediate review to determine what resources are
[[Page H5506]]
needed, what personnel is needed, and report immediately back to
Congress.
This will ensure that every candidate running for President gets the
same level of protective detail as the current President and that the
same level of protective detail afforded to the Vice President is
afforded to the Vice-Presidential candidate.
{time} 1745
We have a responsibility to ensure their safety and their well-being.
I also commend my colleagues, Congressman Mike Kelly and Jason
Crow, who are leading the House Task Force on the Attempted
Assassination of Donald J. Trump. Their work to investigate this
incident and the detailed shortcomings within the Secret Service will
certainly help Congress implement further meaningful reforms in the
future and ensure the funding and resources are available.
I think the most important thing for the American people to
understand is that it is the responsibility of the government to ensure
that our elections are free, fair, and decided by the American people
at the ballot box, and that any attempt, either by a foreign government
or by a fellow citizen, to undermine that by trying to assassinate a
political candidate must be stopped at all costs.
Mr. Speaker, I thank Speaker Johnson, Leader Scalise, and Chairman
Jordan for swiftly moving to advance this legislation to the floor for
a vote. I encourage every single one of my colleagues, regardless of
their political views, regardless of whether they like or dislike one
of the candidates, to recognize the fundamental fact that we have a
responsibility to ensure their safety and well-being and let the
American people decide who will be President, not an assassin and not
an assassin's bullet.
Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, H.R. 9106, the Enhanced Presidential Security Act of
2024, requires the Secret Service to apply the same standards for
determining the number of agents required to protect Presidents, Vice
Presidents, and major Presidential and Vice-Presidential candidates.
It also directs the Secret Service to conduct a review of the
provision of protection provided to these individuals and to report its
findings and recommendations to Congress.
I support this legislation to ensure that the Secret Service has the
tools, resources, and procedures necessary to keep our highest elected
officials and candidates safe, which is critical to our democratic
system of government.
In advancing this legislation, Republicans are hoping to distract
from the common denominator in every successful assassination of a U.S.
President, as well as the attempted assassination of President Reagan
and the attempted assassination of former Presidents and Presidential
candidates Theodore Roosevelt and Donald Trump. In every single one of
these events, the weapon used was a gun.
The fact is that the work of the Secret Service is made infinitely
more difficult by our lax gun laws.
This Congress, the Republican majority has repeatedly sought to
further weaken our gun laws, endangering our children, our law
enforcement officers, our communities, and even their own Presidential
candidate.
Last year, after a mass shooter killed six people, including three
children, at a school in Nashville, Republicans fought to make sure
everyone could continue to acquire the accessory that shooter used in
circumvention of the National Firearms Act.
Earlier this year, our Republican colleagues cheered as the Supreme
Court, stacked with Republican nominees, struck down the regulation of
bump stocks, allowing the accessory used in the deadliest mass shooting
in U.S. history to again be available to the public without even a
background check.
When the Senate tried to bring up legislation to again regulate bump
stocks, Senate Republicans blocked it. Similar legislation in the House
has just one Republican cosponsor, and the Republican majority has
refused to advance it.
Just today, Republicans used their control of the Judiciary Committee
to advance a bill that would weaken the Bipartisan Safer Communities
Act, reinvigorate the black market for guns, and reopen the online and
private sale loophole. That legislation would make it so that convicted
felons, domestic abusers, and other dangerous persons who are
prohibited from possessing a gun could easily get one without a
background check. It would make it so that unlicensed sellers could,
once again, profit from endangering our communities.
It doesn't stop there. Not only have they sought to unravel our gun
laws through legislation and our courts, but our Republican colleagues
have also sought to defund the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms,
and Explosives, the primary agency tasked with enforcing our gun laws,
including by helping State and local law enforcement solve violent
crimes and keep guns out of the wrong hands.
The cumulative effect of these efforts is clear. We know from
headline after headline that it is far too easy for violent individuals
to get a gun and end a life or many lives in a matter of seconds. That
is true whether the attacker targets schoolchildren, a domestic
partner, a house of worship, or a Presidential candidate.
The challenges faced by the Secret Service would be vastly diminished
if we passed any one of our many proposals to keep guns out of the
wrong hands, but over and over, Republicans have prioritized access to
deadly weapons over the safety of our communities.
I support this legislation because the Secret Service must be able to
protect our highest elected officials and candidates, but this
legislation will do nothing to make the rest of us any safer or change
the fact that gun violence continues to take the lives of more than 100
Americans every single day.
As Republicans yet again rush headlong toward a government shutdown,
unable to even manage the most basic aspects of governing, and as they
continue to oppose every action to prevent gun violence, Democrats will
continue to fight to make our communities safer for every American.
Mr. Speaker, I nonetheless urge my colleagues to support this modest
legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. JORDAN. Mr. Speaker, let me get this straight. Some crazy guy on
the left tries to assassinate President Trump, and it is Republicans'
fault? That is what we just heard.
Next thing they are going to say is, oh, some crazy guy on the left
tries to assassinate President Trump, and it is President Trump's
fault. Oh, wait a minute. They said that, too.
This is ridiculous. We have a bipartisan bill that Representative
Lawler went to Democrats to work with them on, something that everyone
knows needs to happen, and what does the ranking member do? He says it
is Republicans' fault. What do Democrats do? What does the left do?
They say it is President Trump's fault. You cannot make this stuff up.
After all that President Trump has been through, they go to that.
After they spied on his campaign, after Mueller, after impeachment,
after they raided his home, after they tried the crazy 14th Amendment
idea that the best way to beat him is not let him play the game, not
let him go on the ballot--thank goodness the Supreme Court decided 9-0
that was bogus. That is what they do.
I wasn't even going to talk. I was going to let Mr. Lawler, who has
done the work on this, handle all this. His remarks were totally
bipartisan, not partisan at all. I was just going to let this good
piece of legislation that is going to go on suspension--everyone is
going to vote for it--just let it happen, but no, they cannot help
themselves. It is ridiculous.
Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman
from New York (Mr. Lawler), who is working in the proper fashion on a
good piece of legislation that will protect, as he indicated in his
opening remarks, both former President Trump and Vice President Harris.
That is what we want in America.
Mr. LAWLER. Mr. Speaker, on the issue of gun violence in America, I
think about New York and the disastrous cashless bail law, which was
put into effect and supported by the ranking member and continues to be
supported by the ranking member, in which more than 80 percent of perps
who are carrying and using a gun are released back out onto the street.
[[Page H5507]]
I will quote New York City Mayor Eric Adams: ``When it comes to guns,
this year, 2,386 people were arrested with a gun. Of those,
approximately 1,921 are out on the street.''
Eric Adams went on to say:
``Arrested with a gun, out on the street.''
``Gun arrests in custody, 19.5 percent. Out of custody, over 80
percent.''
``How do you take a gun law seriously when the overwhelming numbers
are back on the streets after carrying a gun?''
Eric Adams says very clearly that you can't take it seriously when
you refuse to prosecute people who use guns in the commission of a
crime.
So many of my colleagues in New York have been so clueless about
this. They talk about gun violence, but they have no problem allowing a
criminal using guns in the commission of a crime to be put back on the
street to do it again and again. It is wrong.
If you want to crack down on gun violence in America, then prosecute
criminals who use guns in the commission of a crime, but no, we don't
want to do that.
New York raised the age so 16- and 17-year-olds are being treated in
family court rather than criminal court, and the gangs are using them,
letting them use guns in the commission of a crime because they know
they are going to get a slap on the wrist.
Let's get serious about gun violence in America. Let's crack down on
criminals who actually use guns in the commission of a crime.
Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, this Nation is awash in guns. It is the only
Nation where we have, time after time after time, school shootings,
where we aren't even surprised at mass shooting events in schools. We
are the only Nation that has mass shooting events because of our lax
gun laws, because we are awash in guns.
Mr. Lawler says we should prosecute people who use guns in crimes. I
agree. We certainly should. We certainly should do that, and if the
people of New York aren't, they should. I can't comment on the New York
laws. I haven't been in the legislature in 32 years. Mr. Lawler has
been there more recently.
The fact of the matter is, this country is awash in guns, and Mr.
Jordan says that a left-winger attempted to assassinate former
President Trump. We don't know that. The person who attempted to
assassinate him, we know, researched the whereabouts of former
President Trump. He researched the whereabouts of President Biden. He
seemed to want to kill somebody, and the evidence seems to point out
that the reason he attacked Trump and not Biden was because Trump was
holding a rally near where he was. However, the fact is he is dead, and
we don't know. We certainly don't know his political opinions.
In any event, this country is awash in guns.
While this bill is a good bill, we should equally protect our
Presidential candidates, whether they are the incumbent President or
the would-be President and Vice-Presidential candidates. The fact is
that Presidential candidates and all of us are less safe because this
country is awash in guns, and it is the only country in the world--I
shouldn't say that--there are countries where genocide is being
committed, like Darfur in Sudan, but it is one of the only countries in
the world awash in guns.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr.
Torres), the cosponsor of this bill.
Mr. TORRES of New York. Mr. Speaker, I thank the ranking member for
yielding.
Mr. Speaker, I am proud to partner with my colleague, the gentleman
from New York (Mr. Lawler), on a matter of urgent importance to our
Nation.
The United States is entering an age of ever-escalating political
violence, as evidenced by the violent assault on the United States
Capitol on January 6 and as evidenced by not one but two attempted
assassinations of a former President.
On July 13, the difference between an attempted assassination and a
completed assassination was not the skill of the Secret Service. It was
luck.
If the gunman had been slightly more precise in his shooting, or if
the former President had moved ever so slightly to his right, the
former President would have been killed. The fact that America stood
inches and seconds away from a national crisis is itself a crisis.
The security of a major Presidential candidate, whether it be
Democratic nominee Vice President Harris or Republican nominee former
President Donald Trump, cannot be left to chance.
{time} 1800
Hoping for the best and lucking out is not a policy prescription for
protecting a President or a Presidential candidate.
Both the House and the Senate, both Democrats and Republicans, should
be dedicated to a bipartisan, bicameral proposition that both major
Presidential candidates of both parties are entitled to the highest
level of Secret Service protection, not only for their sake, but for
our Nation's.
One final point is that the Secret Service urgently needs not only
more resources but also deeper structural reforms. Only 30 percent of
the Secret Service budget is dedicated to protective operations. The
remaining 70 percent is spent on legacy functions that trace back to
the Secret Service's time in the Treasury Department.
The role the Secret Service plays in financial law enforcement does
not reflect a rational allocation of resources and responsibilities. It
is an accident of history and a relic of the past that should be
reexamined by the United States Congress.
Mr. JORDAN. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I am prepared to close, and I yield myself
the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, once again, the Federal Government is just as it was
this same time last year, on the brink of shutting down, threatening to
cut off essential services for millions of Americans.
Instead of addressing the real needs of the American people,
Republicans have spent this week spreading misinformation about
immigrants, attempting to hide from their own record on reproductive
care, and evading their responsibility to govern.
In bringing up this legislation, they seek to distract the American
people from the fact that their own actions have repeatedly made every
American, from Presidential candidates to schoolchildren, more at risk
of gun violence.
When Democrats take back the House, we will work to make everyone in
this Nation safer, but for today, I urge Members to support this
legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. JORDAN. Mr. Speaker, I urge a ``yes'' vote on this commonsense,
good legislation that is designed to protect our Presidential
candidates, and I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Jordan) that the House suspend the rules and
pass the bill, H.R. 9016, as amended.
The question was taken.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds
being in the affirmative, the ayes have it.
Mr. JORDAN. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, further
proceedings on this motion will be postponed.
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